A blog of two mates who like to drink and make beer. Find tasting notes, flavors of the month and other information of the latest home brews.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Success, Failure and Sunday Sess with Stone & Wood

I woke up this morning with thoughts of the success of the beer we kegged yesterday, and the failure of the first experiment of trying to brew a beer with Milo.

10am yesterday I made it out to Stass's place, and 10 minutes later was re-acquainting myself with our successful experiment of a mulberry molasses beer we have now labelled Bira Dut Pekmezi to relate to it's Turkish influence. After a photo op with the Guinness and Milo beer filled fermenters we took a final specific gravity read of both, and tasting them realised the Milo beer was not fit for human consumption...well, anyone with tastebuds anyway.

There was only the very slightest of milo malt flavour on the front of the tongue before the sourness came through, which as I feared, would come from the milk powder in the Milo. It also looked like cloudy urine, and had heaps of sediment on the bottom (I wish now I had stirred up to see how it would taste in the beer). Anyway, as in most things you have to take the good with the bad when experimenting, and at a loss of $20, it is not that bad. I am hoping though we can come up with another way of adding Milo to beer.

Once we kegged the Guinness, we gave it time to carbonate for a couple of hours before having our first taste. After having to wait 3 weeks for it to carbonate in bottles last time we brewed it, was happy to be drinking it so soon, and being very impressed with it from the tap. We are still having a few problems with the pour on most beers, but the Guinness poured very well, which we were extremely happy to see. The malt body definitely needs to mature a bit more, but the beer is there, and as good as it was in our first attempt, so looking forward to a few more sessions on it over at Stass's as this cold weather starts to dissipate. Still, was a lovely day for drinking in the sun yesterday, so to have the Bira Dut Pekmezi's dark fruity goodness to drink in with it was great.

In the afternoon I made my way to Fitzroy, and the Worker's Club, where within Stone & Wood were having the launch of this years Stone beer, which I recalled having enjoyed a couple of years back. While it still has that toffee element to it through the use of heated rocks reacting with the malt during the brewing process, I am not sure if the hops related well to this flavour and feel, and as James pointed out to me while I was there, perhaps minerals from the rocks themselves may have affected the flavour of the brew. It could also just be a case that my palate has developed over the past couple of years (possibly for the worse) and so found myself not enjoying it as much as I had before. Hmm, am I becoming a beer snob? Still, I did enjoy the toffee element that has been retained in this beer. Other factors I saw effecting my experience initially was that I was standing near a newly spray painted art piece that was being made at the event, and after having been drinking for 6 hours, noticed quite a bit of chlorine in the water I was using to cleanse my tastebuds for the beer.

While I was in the area, I took a walk to a new bottlo on Elgin Street called 'Booze'. Unfortunately it was closed, which while was disappointing for me, seemed to affect more a girl that came at the same time as me, who let it known quite vocally how much of a bastard she though those in charge of the business were for not being open when she wanted alcohol. While on this stroll, the need to eat was felt before I went back to the Stone & Wood Festival. Seeing I will be in Adelaide on Wednesday to sample the latest Moo Brew Vintage Imperial Stout at the Wheaty, I thought 'this Bogan should prepare for this 'un-bogan' beer, by having bogan food'. Remembering the Rochester Hotel does a bogan parma, I thought that appropriate. With a Fat Yak, I got into this egg topped parma, which while the meat was good and the use of bacon went well with the egg, the cheese was a bit plastic, the crumbing burnt a bit and the tomato not very rich (hmm, am I going to start criticising everything now?). Still, I may visit the Napier Hotel to have their bogan burger before I head to Adelaide to make sure I am fully prepared.

Getting back to the Workers for one more pot of the Stone beer, chatting to a couple of people, listening to more bands and checking out the art on display and being created on-premise, I started to feel the effects of having started drinking around 10am, so made my way home.

I look forward to writing up a report from my trip to Adelaide, the Wheaty, and continuing my work as the unofficial ambassador of Moo Brew...

Stass: Like all types of beer* (*there are a few exceptions). Sometimes it's an ale, sometimes a stout and sometimes it's a larger. Is willing to give anything a try and enjoys tasting something new.

A good beer to Stass is one that sets out with a clear goal in mind and achieves that. Whether that goal is to be a thirst quenching beer to be had around the barbecue with a few mates, or to explore the depth of flavours in a detailed scotch ale.